Global Learn Day X
October 8, 2006

What Time Is It?

Global Learn Day X is October 8, 2006

The most vexing problem of Global Learn Day is solving the What Time Is It Problem.

How do we reduce confusion about a 24 hour event that opens (for some) on Saturday and closes (for others) on Monday - but takes place entirely on Sunday?

How do we get people to think in terms of Greenwich Mean Time? Or Coordinated Universal Time ? or Pacific Standard Time if they live in Prague or Perth or Santiago or Seoul?

Here's how.

First, we try hard to make everyone understand that even though Global Learn Day always begins at 00:01 GMT, on Sunday, what that also means is for those living in the Americas, that's Saturday.

So, if you live anywhere from Alaska to Chile and want to be in at the start, mark your calendar for Saturday.

Second, we post all times in two frames of reference:

GMT (UTC)
A time local to that region of the world

Third, we link all times on all of the timetables to The World Clock, which shows the local time in all time zones.
For example, our time table might say:

Open Ceremony 0:00 GMT Sun.

If you click on the link from the GMT time, you will get a display of what time that GMT time is all around the world. This time is Sunday at Noon in Suva; Sunday at 2 am in Brussels; Sunday at 5:30 am in New Delhi; Saturday 5:00 pm in San Francisco and so forth for approximately 150 cities, allowing you to set your personal schedule.